Communication is integral to our vision so we have active social media and websites for all our projects, and promote our projects to local, national and professional media. We manage the risks to participants of inappropriate media exposure by stringent consents.

Participants are adults aged 18 and over who live with mental health problems, ranging from severe and enduring mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder, to mild or moderate anxiety and depression. Some of our projects work exclusively with women, or people who live in supported housing. Our particular expertise is work with people with complex needs who experience multiple disadvantages.

Opportunities for projects and partnerships arise through proactively using our networks of personal and professional contacts, from commissioning opportunities, and from funding programmes.

Trustees and the Director have experiences and networks spanning heritage/arts and health/social environments and we use these to develop ideas and plans. We consult participants, deploy our research and take imaginative leaps to create the web of connections that make up an effective project.

Where we have come from

The Restoration Trust formed in April 2014 as a Community Organisation, with a mission to bridge the gap between cultural and health/social organisations.

Laura Drysdale (Director) knew from supporting people with mental health problems for Homegroup and Julian Support that socially isolated and marginalised people often have cultural and creative enthusiasms, which connect them to the outside world and are vital to their wellbeing. However, these are seldom acknowledged by health and social care provision.

Cultural organisations like arts centres, museums, archives and historic sites may have programmes for marginalised people but they tend to be short lived. Budget constraints and funders’ requirements often push them to fall back on working with less demanding participants to meet inclusion targets.

Arts and health is a well established discipline, and it informs and overlaps with our work, notably in the areas of mental health, partnership, arts on referral (or arts on prescription) and personal health budgets.

There is developing museums and wellbeing practice, particularly in dementia and employment, and some museum education programmes are becoming more community/wellbeing focussed.

There is comparatively little activity or research literature on the psychological impact of engagement with heritage.

Laura and a group of colleagues, who became trustees of the Restoration Trust, felt that they could bring new funding and with willing partners create their own projects. This approach was inspired by the learning derived from Laura’s management of two long-term looking and making projects – ‘Living With Me’ and ‘Voyage With Me’ undertaken with vulnerable women at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Anecdotally and from interim research we know that a number of participants have moved on to further education, volunteering and employment. Others have transitioned to become members of our project boards, and of successor projects with increased independence.

Hard research evidence of the heritage, social and mental health benefits of our projects will be available from August 2017.

Our projects

Our four overlapping work clusters are: archives; archaeology and the historic landscape; music and art appreciation; women.